EMERGENCY fire-proof bunkers are to be built under the Mersey, it was revealed last night.

Seven caverns with room to house 980 people will be built below the Queensway road tunnel to provide a safe haven in the event of an underground disaster.

Ramps will run from the road tunnel to each bunker which will be fire-proof to protect motorists for a maximum two hours.

Refuges will have seats, toilets and video phones to allow fire crews on the surface to communicate with those trapped below ground.

Merseytravel, which maintains and operates the tunnels, said the work is necessary to prevent a dis-aster similar to the devastating 1999 blaze in a road tunnel beneath Mont Blanc, between French and Italy, in which 39 people died.

Unlike in that disaster, emergency services are based close to the tunnel and could be on the scene very quickly if a fire broke out.

As a result, the refuge areas would not be expected to be in use for more than two hours before rescue teams could lead stranded drivers to safety.

The building work will be partly funded by the tunnel tolls which Merseytravel has been fighting to be allowed to rise without having to go to public inquiry.

A Merseytravel spokesman said: "We anticipate new European regulations which will improve the safety of trans-European tunnels.

"This would not extend to the Mersey Tunnels but we believe it is important to bring our safety standards up to this level."

Two new tunnels will also be built linking the bunkers with existing escape routes which surface at Morpeth Dock in Birken-head and George Dock in Liverpool.

Air will be blown into the beneath kers at a higher pressure than the road tunnel to prevent smoke clogging the escape routes.

Merseytravel engineers built a &#xA3;10,000 life-size mock up of one of the bunkers and are now looking for a contractor to build them.

Peter Bishop, senior manager at Mersey Tunnels, said: "The concept behind this is for assisted rescue. The existing infrastructure is simply not good enough to allow self-rescue during a fire.

"Instead people, stay put in the refuges until they can either go back to their cars in the road tunnel or, in the worst case scenario, they are guided back to the surface by rescue teams."

A private construction company will be appointed to carry out the project in February 2004 and work will start the following April with the project scheduled to be completed by March 2005.

Mr Bishop stressed the tunnel would remain open during the construction of the bunkers and delays would be kept to a minimum.

The bunkers will be part of the under-river section of the tunnel complex which makes up approximately one third of the entire 2.2 mile Queensway tunnel.

After 2005, Merseytravel intends to build a further two to three bunkers under the tunnel on each side of the river, at a cost of around &#xA3;7m.

Motorists will be able to escape unaided from the refuges through emergency shafts which will lead to the surface.

Engineers have recently completed a &#xA3;2m scheme to improve escape routes in the Kingsway Tunnel.

In the event of a fire in the Wallasey tunnel, motorists can escape to the surface using a second emergency tunnel which runs alongside the main tube. Last year, a study of 30 European tunnels by the AA ranked the Queensway tube 21st in terms of safety and the Kingsway seventh.